Second Election Management Training for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq

May 16, 2005

1. The Government of Japan will conduct, from May 17 (Tue) to 25 (Wed), election management training for fourteen personnel who belong to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq headquarters in Baghdad or its branch offices in the Governorates of Al-Muthanna, An-Najaf, Washit and Dahuk.
2. Because it is important to implement in a fair and smooth manner a series of elections including a national referendum on the Constitution slated for October and a national assembly election scheduled at the end of this year, this election administration training is intended for managerial staff of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq headquarters in Baghdad and its local branch offices.
3. Japan believes that fair elections will play an extremely important role in the stages of the political process in Iraq. Based on this idea, Japan provided in December last year a short-term and intensive training course to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq headquarters in Baghdad and its branch office in the Governorate of Al-Muthanna. Since Iraq highly valued the training, it has requested Japan to provide another course for the coming elections.
4. The trainees, election administration managers and workers, will try to acquire basic knowledge of election management and improve their election administration skills through lectures on the election system, electoral fund management and election monitoring as well as observation of election campaigns and actual voting.
5. The training will be implemented as part of the training programs of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

Related Information (The Issue of Iraq)